A Witch and a White Whale
by Plaid Beans
Summary: A young, incredibly powerful witch and her ill best friend are on an unwanted journey to be sold to the Dark One. Abroad the Pequod, Amelia is an outcast before a handsome sailor named Killian Jones befriends her. It's not until the mad Captain Ahab begins to hunt the majestic white whale Moby Dick that everyone learns the true power Amelia has, and the true price of magic. Oneshot


"On to the ship, little witch. Come on, move along. We haven't got all day. That's right, pick up your feet, lass. The _Pequod_ has places to be," the seaman barked from behind us. He was carrying our one chest of belongings, and I suppose we were moving too slowly for his liking, because he ended up pushing past us with an irritated _huff _and threw our chest onto the deck of the ship.

"He's a joy," Ellie whispered with a snicker. I quickly _shoosh_ed her, but I couldn't hide a smile. I knew she was trying to make me feel better, but we really weren't in a situation where we could afford to be goofing around. She was gripping me around the neck as I half-dragged, half-assisted her up the ramp to the ship. When we finally made it on board, I set her on the trunk the seamen had thrown down and we both breathed a sigh of relief.

But that feeling was short lived because soon another sailor stormed over to us, grabbed Ellie by the arm and said with breath reeking of yesterday's whiskey, "This way, girlies." Ellie cried out in pain, her polio making her muscles extremely tender.

"Release her!" I snapped, and pulled desperately at the sailors arm. "I'll take her, please!" The man rolled his eyes, but flinched noticeably at my touch, and dropped Ellie. I barely caught her before her legs collapsed. The three of us, the sailor with our case, moved down some steep staircases—practically ladders—to the bowels of the ship. There he tossed our case into a dingy, musty room with bunk cots. I set Ellie gingerly onto the lower cot.

"Enjoy the room, girlies. This is as good as it gets here." And then the man turned to me and warned, "And remember, witch, no funny stuff. Otherwise, you girlfriend gets tossed overboard. And I doubt she can swim real well with those curley-q legs of hers."

I slammed the thick door after he left.

"My legs kind of do look like curley-qs," Ellie mused as she dragged each leg onto the bed so she could lie down. It was not without a wince of pain, but she hid it well beneath her red bangs. After she had sprawled herself out on the cot she sighed, "Hmm, not as bad as you would think."

"Stop pretending Ellie, it's just me here now," I demanded, kicking open our case and fishing out a thick blanket for her. Ellie's polio had ravaged her body. She was cold a lot of the time because her body couldn't adjust to temperature the way a healthy one would. I knew it was only a matter of time before she caught a cold and passed on. Polio was tricky that way. It got you so sick, ravaged your muscles and distorted your limbs, but then something mundane like a cold was what did a man in. It wouldn't be long before that was the story of my best friend as well.

I laid out the blanket over her "curley-q" legs and sat down next to her. The cot was pretty uncomfortable. Ellie grinned. "I'm not pretending. This cot is better than sleeping in the Dark Forrest like we had been. I didn't much care for worrying if a chimera was going to kill me in my sleep, did you? Or speaking too loudly and an ogre eating me up? Or maybe this cot is about the same as the time we slept on the troll's bridge, and then they nearly threw us off of it? Yes, I think this cot will do quite nicely."

Ellie and I were best friends, and had been for as long as I could remember. We were both orphaned streetrats—beggars living off the hope that people would see our cute, pathetic faces and give us a coin or a piece of bread. Ellie was practically my sister, and since we found each other in our very early childhood, we had never been apart. We stuck together through thick and thin, although to be honest, it had mostly been thin. We weren't very lucky.

I don't know exactly how old I was when I began to develop my magic, but I suspect it was around my 12th name day. Ellie was so excited for me, she said she had always wanted to do magic, and having a best friend who could do it was just as good. I wasn't so excited. Magic was a lot of work, and difficult to master. Everyday I felt like I was learning something new about myself, and it was a little terrifying to think that I was changing so rapidly. What if by the end of all this I didn't recognize myself anymore? Sometimes I felt like the magic was taking over. One day I could start a flame with the snap of my fingers, the next I started a forest fire. Another day I levitated a coin, and heard frightful screams. I turned around and saw I was levitating everything in the shop across the street. I could turn water to juice, apples to chocolate, dirt into money.

At first I hadn't figured there was a cost to all this power; I thought it all just came from within me. But there is always a price when it comes to magic.

Ellie got sick. I don't know how, but I know it was my fault. One afternoon, we paid for some stew at a pub with coins I had transformed from dirt. All of a sudden, the owner of the pub came at us, screaming and waving a broom, saying we had cheated him. The coins had turned back to dirt in his pockets. He hit Ellie with the broom, and although it should have only been a slight bruise, she crumpled to the floor, howling in agony. I managed to get her out of there with more magic, but by the time we made it to safety, her back had curved at an ungodly angle. Of course I healed her, what kind of friend wouldn't?

Suddenly, Ellie started to scream in pain, writhing in her cot. I was wrenched out of my reverie and slapped back into reality. I grabbed a hold of her hand and said, "I'm here, you're okay. You're okay, Ellie. I can take away the pain."

"No!" She snapped at me, pulling her hand out of mine. "Don't do any more magic!"

I scooted away from her, my back to the wall of our small cell-like room. Ellie cringed in pain, but then that passed. She was sweating, and had kicked off most of her blanket. I inched back over to her to tuck her back in. Ellie sighed. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"It's fine," I said. "You should. I just don't like to see you in pain."

"It's the way it has to be," she said. "It's the way it was _meant_ to be." She shut her eyes, exhausted from all the travel of the day on her weak body. "I should sleep."

"Yeah, get some rest. Feel better."

I wandered on the ship's deck, in search of food for Ellie and I. Ellie was too weak to come to the deck herself, so it was my job to bring all her meals down to her. There weren't many options: hard wafers, dried beef and bad wine. I made no contact with any of the sailors aboard the _Pequod _with the exception of some shy glances and asking for provisions.

"Excited about meeting your master, little witch?" One of the sailors taunted me as I filled a flask of wine for Ellie and I. "Not every day you get sold off, right?"

"The Dark One wants you… that can't be good," mocked another. There was a lot of laughter. I held back tears. I was terrified of what they said, because it was all true. This ship was taking me away from everything I had ever known to a new land, with a monster they called The Dark One, who needed me for something… or perhaps he just wanted to kill me.

"To get rid of the competition," a sailor joked. "Someone like him is used to being the most powerful thing walking the Earth. And because they say that you're the next strongest thing…" he made a gesture with his own knife like he was slitting his throat. I got out of there as quickly as I could.

"Ignore them," Ellie demanded as she gnawed at the hard wafer after I told her what he sailors had said. "They'll be eating their words soon."

"As soon as your dead," I mumbled grimly, my voice wavering. Ellie looked at me and smiled tragically.

"Don't be so glum about it. When I'm dead, you're free."

I didn't see it that way. Ellie was everything to me; she was the closest thing I had to family and my only friend. It made sense that my magic took its power from her; she was the only thing I loved. But what a terrible toll it was taking.

Her polio was better when I didn't use magic, but it was killing her whether I abstained or not. Ellie liked to say that it was nature; that she was doomed to die of illness whether or not her best friend was a witch. Before things got so terribly out of control, I would heal Ellie all the time. It wasn't until other people began to notice that I was a witch, and that I was such a _powerful _witch, that Ellie stopped letting me heal her.

When people realized how powerful I was, they tried to get me to use my magic to help them. Normally I was happy to oblige. But eventually, the requests became dark… evil, even. I refused. People learned that the way to get me to do what they wanted was to threaten the only thing I cared about—Ellie.

I took away people's memories of true love without their permission. I made the bad rich, and the good poor. I cursed people… I even killed.

Doing those terrible things… they were destroying me.

Ellie couldn't tolerate that. She thought that she was the source of my misery. If she weren't around, then other people would have no leverage over me. I wouldn't be forced to do a damn thing they wanted. She tried to leave, but I wouldn't let her. She wouldn't survive without me.

Ellie decided to forgo magic for her polio. She wanted to die naturally. The disease was tearing her apart; she wasn't long for this Earth. But I couldn't lose my best friend, so I would discreetly heal her in the night. When she found out, she ran away. I found her again, and begged her to stay with me, but it was only a matter of time before I was healing her again, (this time giving her phantom pains so she wouldn't get suspicious). I just couldn't bear to watch my best friend slowly wither away and die! But that was what Ellie wanted. She didn't want to be a "burden" on me any more. When she found out I was healing her again, she said that if she ever caught me using magic on her again, she would find the nearest pointy object and kill herself. I knew she was serious, because Ellie always got what she wanted. Since then, I have never used magic on her. Not even to relieve her pain, because the pain was proof to her that she was dying. And that's really, truly what she wanted. To die.

"When I lose you, I don't know what I'll do," I told her, on the verge of tears again.

Ellie didn't even look up from her wafer. "I do. You'll flip this ship upside down and fly off into the sunset like a fairy. You'll never meet The Dark One. You'll never belong to anyone but yourself. You'll be so much stronger without me, so much happier. Honestly, I can't wait to die when I think about how much better off you'll be."

I hated when she talked like this. I threw down my wafer and stalked out of the room, tears pouring out of my eyes. I made it to the deck, and since it was night not many sailors were around. I saw one at the head of the ship and another manning the sails, but that was it. Nobody was paying attention to me.

The _Pequod _was a whaling ship, but it also was doubling as a merchant vessel for at least this one trip. Apparently their sister ship couldn't handle all of its cargo, so they enlisted the _Pequod _to help. That's why Ellie and I were on this ship instead of the merchant ship. We were the overflow cargo.

But we weren't the only items that didn't make it onto the merchant ship. There were also some chests of valuables, barrels of rare wine and liquors, and a cherry tree. Apparently cherries weren't natural plants in this new land, so the wealthy like to buy cherry trees. Unfortunately, the tree wasn't making it the duration of the journey. It had withered into a sad, tall stick with no leaves, perhaps how it should have looked during a particularly harsh winter. The salt and wind hadn't been good for it, and it was near death. I don't know what I was thinking, but when I saw such a pathetic piece of nature from my homeland, I couldn't help but pity it. When I laid my hand on the tree to comfort it, it burst to life. The trunk thickened, leaves burst from branches which burst from the trunk, and little white flowers turned into purple balls which turned into thick, red cherries. It was glorious, but unintentional.

"Interesting trick," a voice said from over my shoulder. I spun around and saw a tall boy, about my age—17—with a dark scruff and eyes as blue as the sea. He reached out and plucked a cherry from the tree and smiled. "Delicious, well done. The captain is going to be pleased that he won't have to throw this tree overboard now."

"Because all useless things go straight into the sea," I muttered unhappily, thinking of all the threats against Ellie. The second I stepped out of line, off she would go.

"Well, where else would they go?" he asked, but then put his hand on my shoulder, which instantly tensed me up. "And don't worry, friend, you won't be going over any time soon."

"Who are you?" I asked, backing away from him.

The sailor's arm fell to his side and he grinned. "My manners must have been lost at sea, my mother would be so ashamed." He lurched forward, causing me to jump, but then I realized he was bowing. "I present myself, the handsome sailor, Killian Jones."

I cocked an eyebrow at his arrogance. "'The handsome sailor?'" I asked incredulously. But, perhaps my tone was slightly unfair, because he was rather handsome.

"Well, you can call me Killian Jones. Or just Killian." In one smooth, fast motion he had my hand in his and pressed the back of my palm to his lips. "Pleasure, to meet you, little witch."

I pulled my hand away from him and said, slightly exasperatedly, "My name is Amelia."

Killian stood back up and grabbed a handful of cherries off the tree. "Amelia… interesting name, interesting girl. Yes, you don't seem much like a witch to me. Too kind, too small. Witches are always old, evil bats—at least, that's what I've heard."

"Jones!" The sailor at the head of the ship barked. "Back to work before I hang ye from the masts for decoration!"

Killian quickly bowed again and smiled. "I better take my leave, I'm too good looking for décor. Until next time, Amelia."

I brought a handful of cherries down to Ellie, but I was horrified by what I saw. She was contorted into the most unnatural position, limbs flipped every-which-way. She forced them back into a semi-normal position (at least for her standards) and said, "It was just a bad bout for a second there, I'm fine now."

I dropped the cherries and clutched her hand. "It was me, I used magic again, I'm sorry!"

"You shouldn't have to apologize for doing what is natural for you," she said, squeezing my hand comfortingly. She looked terrible. Somewhere deep inside of me, I knew she wouldn't make it to our destination. I think she knew it too.

Ellie noticed the cherries on the ground and said, "Is that what you used magic on? Cherries?" When I nodded she rolled her eyes. "Killing me for some cherries, I'll never understand you Millie." When she saw how despondent I was she laughed, "Well, bring them here! Come on, cherries sound delicious now."

I gathered them off the nasty floor and rubbed off the wet dirt they had collected with the skirts of my dress. Then, we devoured them.

"Delicious!" Ellie cried out. "It was worth the pain. You'll have to get more of these later."

I shook my head. "I'm not going to hurt you again."

"I don't mind if you use your magic, Amelia, really I don't. But when the magic finally kills me, I don't want it to be for cherries. I want you to be doing something really grand. Please flip the boat for me, that's how I want to go. Use all your magic and flip the boat."

It was about a week into our journey now, and Killian had told me that we were only a few days off from the new land. I was both horrified and excited by the prospect of being so close: horrified because it meant I would be meeting the Dark One, and excited because it seemed like Ellie would survive the trip, despite her rapidly declining health.

The seas became particularly rough one night due to a storm. Ellie and I were playing cards in our bunk, drinking wine and laughing when suddenly, I fell to the right, slamming into the narrow walls of the cabin. "What's going on?" I asked Ellie. She was weakly gripping her blanket, as if that would keep her secure in her bed while the ship swayed incessantly.

"I think the ship has altered course!" she replied nervously. That certainly would have explained the sudden lurch, which was different than the typical left-right sway of the sea.

"I'll go see what's going on."

I didn't even make it to the deck. All the sailors were darting about as the ship swayed and crashed in the storm. When I poked my head out, I was greeted with a mist of frigid seawater. I squinted to see what was about, and noticed many of the sailors were leaping into the smaller whaling boats.

"Want to see the action?" I heard a familiar voice ask. Killian was wet with water from the rain and ocean spray and was carrying a large harpoon on one shoulder.

"Why have we altered course?" I asked.

Killian patted the harpoon and nearly dropped it. "The good captain saw a beauty of a whale and couldn't pass it up. It's all white, absolutely gorgeous. The crew named it Moby Dick. We're going to get it for oil and bones. Shouldn't take us too off course." Then he winked at me, "But I figured you of all people would be fine with a little detour."

I eyed the harpoon, a fearsome piece of steel sharpened to four deadly points. "You're going to kill it… with that?" I asked, reaching out to touch one of the points. Killian quickly moved away from me, but his swift motion caused the blade of the harpoon to slice my fingers.

"Careful, it's sharp—Oh, I'm sorry Amelia," he groaned when he saw the blood. He looked about nervously, as if he wanted to find something to help my cut, but knew he had to work. "I'm sorry, I've got to go," Killian apologized, moving away from me. "You can heal that, can't you? You probably shouldn't watch this, I fear you don't have the heart for such brutality."

He hurried off without another word to deliver the harpoon and I crawled back down to Ellie and my's room to relay the information.

"A white whale, I bet that is quite a sight. You should go and see it, you know, before they kill it." The ship lurched again, and I barely caught myself against the bunk cots before I was thrown completely on my back.

"I think I would fall overboard," I joked. Ellie nodded, she was very weak now. "But if you want to see it, I can take you up there," I offered.

She shook her head. "No, I'd rather just stay here and talk to you."

"About what?"

"Anything. You're my best friend, we can talk about dirt and I would be fine. But tell me about that sailor. Did you see him up there?" She was referring to Killian, whom I had told her a little bit about. I had talked to him almost everyday since the time I first met him at the cherry tree. Ellie was convinced I liked him. I however, wasn't.

"Yes I talked to him for a moment. He told me the whale is called Moby Dick."

"Adorable. When you flip the boat, you can save him if you'd like. I won't be jealous." I didn't know if she was referring to Killian Jones, or the whale. I suppose she wouldn't mind if I saved either or both.

I held her hand just as the ship swayed angrily again.

"I think the whale is going to flip the boat before I have the chance," I joked, but the swaying didn't stop. In fact, the aggressive motion continued again and again. Suddenly a sailor was at our door.

"Witch, we need you on deck, now!" He grabbed my arm and dragged me away from Ellie so that there would be no mistaking his urgency. He threw me on deck and it took everything I had to stay on my two feet on that slippery, cold wooden floor that was moving everywhere at once. I saw a flash of white overboard, and the whale's enormous tail came out of the water and sent a massive wave onto the ship. I fell on my back, and slid down the deck, only to be stopped by the strong arms of Killian. He scooped me to my feet and held me steady. "A little late in the game now to realize you haven't any sea legs," he joked over the wind and rain.

"Witch!" the man in the captain's hat shouted, pointing accusingly at me. "Stop this damn beast before he kills us all!"

"What? How?" I asked.

"Kill it! It's trying to sink our ship!"

The ship was still swaying unsettlingly, but the white behemoth was nowhere in sight. "Where is it?" I asked.

"It's under the ship," Killian replied gravely, just before the _Pequod _made a terrifying jolt in the air as the whale hit us from below. Killian's arms were instantly around me, steadying me, and the whale emerged on our side of the ship.

"Stop it now, witch!" The captain ordered. I threw out my hands, and with all my concentration, I imagined Moby Dick was calm and frozen.

An indigo aura began to surround the white creature and the raging waves of the stormy sea fell away from Moby Dick. The massive animal hung, immobile in the windy air just a few meters off of the starboard side of the ship.

"Alright men, arm the harpoons!" The captain called.

That's when I noticed Moby Dick was bleeding profusely from multiple gashes and harpoons sticking in him from all angels along his otherwise flawless body, as stark as blood on snow. The sailors aimed the harpoons at the frozen whale, who released a sad, guttural cry. When the captain shouted, "Fire!" I winced, fearing impact on the beautiful giant, but all I heard were astounded gasps. The harpoons were frozen in the air too.

"What's the bloody meaning of this?" the captain cried out. I squirmed out of Killian's arms and turned my full attention to the awesome beast floating above the ocean. I concentrated on pulling each harpoon out of his flesh, and then healing his scarred body back to its immaculate start. "What is she doing? Stop that witch!"

I turned, and saw that several sailors were approaching me and I felt my attention focus on the captain. How could he be so hateful to this innocent creature? Why did it, of all things, have to die a bloody, terrified death? For oil? For one stupid resource?

And then I realized that Moby Dick wasn't the only creature that would die at the hands of the men of the _Pequod _just for the sake of money. Ellie was dying in the bowels of the ship, alone and in pain, just so that I would be forced to comply and the captain could have whatever amount of money the Dark One was going to pay him for me.

And with that realization, I directed my magic at the captain, and pushed him off the side of the ship. "Man overboard!" The crew cried, and rushed to the rails of the ship where the captain had went sailing.

There was a sudden crash and an incredibly lurch of the ship, as Moby Dick fell back into the ocean. While I had focused on throwing the captain overboard, I had lost track of the white whale, and dropped Moby Dick into the sea. The creature slammed into the water with his incredible bulk, and a horrific tidal wave emerged from the depths of the ocean from the impact. "Hold on, Amelia!" Killian cried out in terror, dragging me to the edge of the ship where we could clutch onto the railing for the impact. The force of the wave washed over us, drowning me in its freezing wetness, but I was safe, and so was the rest of the crew from what I had seen. But although the wave didn't harm us, the recoil from the ship lurching forward from the wave caused the _Pequod_ to fall back in the opposite direction. I was flung from the ship with a terrible snap of the energy of the sea. I tumbled several feet until I hit the water with a painful_ smack _and then I was the one who was frozen as the sea engulfed me whole.

When I finally emerged from the water, I was several meters from the ship. The crew was standing near the edge, searching for me, the captain, and anyone else who had fallen overboard. I waved desperately, and screamed, "Help me! Please, I can't—" before the harsh waves of the stormy sea sucked me back under before anyone could see anything.

I swirled into the dark depths, unaware of whether I was upside down or right side up. The air left me in a rush, and the pressure of the sea popped my ears. I inhaled instinctually, and got two lung-fulls of salty ice water. I knew I was going to die.

Then there was a flash of white, and I managed to flail my body into the direction of the motion. It was Moby Dick. He was coming at me quickly with his mouth open and sharp teeth pointed right at me.

I wondered vagrantly, perhaps if I drowned quickly enough, I wouldn't feel the pain of being devoured whole by a whale. There was an object in the whale's mouth, and that was the last thing I saw before I shut my stinging eyes in terror.

Something firm came from beneath me, forcing me against the ocean until I broke through the surface like a long-held breath of air. I clutched the top of the whale, my hands hugging the creature for dear life. "Please don't eat me Moby Dick," I said after I coughed out all the saltwater. The whale blew air from its spout, which scared me so badly I almost jumped into the sea. When I looked to the _Pequod _to see the status of the ship, I saw something fall from the deck again.

After a few moments, I saw it was a person swimming towards the white whale and I. When the body was very close, I recognized him as my sailor-friend, Killian Jones. "Killian?" I shouted, not moving from my fearful whale-hug. Killian swam closer to us and Moby Dick opened his lower jaw filled with enormous sharp teeth and snarled at him. "No! No, it's fine. Killian is good, Killian is good," I told the whale crazily, as if it could understand me. I rubbed the top of his head, but he was so slimy I didn't want to move too much in fear of slipping right off of him.

The whale calmed back down and sunk deeper into the ocean so that Killian could crawl aboard his white back. He sat down in front of me and laughed. "I bet we look like a couple of wet cats after an unwelcome bath," he said as he flicked his hair back. I saw that he had a rope tied around his waist, and I assume that rope led back to the ship.

"Why are you here?" I asked him.

"To save you, of course," he answered, with a laugh, as if whale attacks and falling overboard happened regularly and were always humorous.

"Because I'm worth so much money," I replied sadly. Killian shrugged, as if that weren't important to him.

He extended his hand to me. "Come on, Amelia. It's time to go back."

I looked back at the ship, and never felt more resistance in my bones in my life. There was nothing to go back to there.

"No," I said firmly. My hands tightened about the top of the whale. Killian would have to drag me off of the beast to go back.

"Don't you want to see your friend again? Ellie?" he asked, his eyes blue eyes softened.

"After this?" I patted the whale. "She's probably dead. I'm the reason she's so sick, you know." I knew I was crying, but I didn't think Killian could tell because I was already covered in salty water.

Killian was quiet for a moment. "Why don't you just heal her, like you did Moby Dick?"

"She won't let me. She _wants_ to die. She want's to die so I can be free."

Killian nodded as he realized what this meant. "Because if she's dead, then you would have no reason to stay with us. You could kill all of us and it wouldn't matter because we would have no way to threaten you any longer."

I nodded. Killian understood everything. "She wanted me to flip the boat," I mumbled sadly.

"You damn near did. Why don't you come tell her that?" He held my hand and helped me to my feet. Moby Dick remained still and unfazed beneath us, while the ocean swirled around him.

"I don't want to go back if she's dead," I said. "I would rather drown."

"If you drown then her sacrifice would be for nothing. She wanted you to be free, not to die. She did that because she loves you."

"I love her too."

"I know that, I can see it every time you talk about her. But if what you say is true, then you only have a little more time to tell her that. Don't let it pass you by because your afraid of what it will make you feel."

I started sob audibly, and Killian took me into his arms. He rubbed my back and cooed into my wet hair. "It's okay, it's okay." Moby Dick began to sing, the vibrations coming from the ocean were long and sad; he was grieving too. "Let's go back now," Killian said, tugging on the rope so that the crew would know to pull us. "You haven't got much time."

We emerged over the side of the ship with the help of four sailors. None of them touched me. I realized there was blood on the deck, and that most of the crew was huddled not far from us. Killian glanced over at them, he was taller than me and I assumed could see over there heads, and then said, "You haven't the time for that. Go see your friend."

Killian was right, and I pushed past some wayward sailors until I reached Ellie and my's room.

"Ellie!" I cried out when I saw she was facedown on the floor, obviously thrown from the bed from the storm and the fight with Moby Dick. She was too weak to get herself back on the cot, or even to flip herself over with her curled limbs. I rushed over to her, and Killian helped get Ellie on her back. I rested her head on my lap and stroked her red hair.

There was a horrific moment where I feared she had died without me by her side. "Ellie," I whimpered, dripping tears and seawater onto her face from my hair and clothes.

"Amelia…" she replied, her voice dry and lost. "Why are you here? I thought you were… flipping the boat for me." She didn't open her eyes until after she had spoken, and then when she did she smiled at me. Then she saw Killian. "Is he the sailor?" She asked. "Looks like a pirate."

I couldn't look away from Amelia for a moment, I was afraid she would disappear. Killian reached out and touched her crooked hand and said, "Yes, love. I'm Killian Jones."

I think she could feel how drenched in cold water we both were, because she smiled again. "Swimming… how romantic."

"Shut up," I told her, and then bit my tongue. "I mean, not really."

Ellie laughed, a crackly one. "What did you do then? I want to know how I went… if you didn't flip the boat."

"I levitated the whale," I said quickly, feeling her spirit leaving me. "The whole whale was out of the water! And then I took out the harpoons and healed the creature. And I pushed the captain overboard, and-"

Ellie's eyes shut and I cried out, "Ellie, _no! _Please, you can't leave me!"

"I love you," she whispered.

"_No!_" I screamed, shaking her body. "No, you can't die on me. I won't let you. No, no, no." I pushed all my magic into her, willing her to come back to me. The purple aura straightened her limbs back to their natural shape, but Ellie didn't awaken. I forced more magic into her, overflowing my power into her. I shook her, cried out her name, but nothing happened.

Killian wrapped his arms around my shoulders. "Amelia… Amelia, I'm sorry."

"No! She can't be dead, she can't be dead," I sobbed, gripping Ellie's body. Killian stroked my back and didn't say anything.

When all my tears were gone, Killian hugged me. "We need to bury her at sea," he said. "It's the right thing to do." I would have preferred to keep her forever, but I knew in my heart Killian was right. Ellie wouldn't have wanted me toting her around like a toy, and it wasn't safe to have a diseased corpse on board. Killian covered Ellie's body with the blanket we had brought, and gently lifted her in his arms.

On deck, the crew jumped at the sight of us, or rather the sight of me. Nobody asked what we were doing, nobody made any moves to stop us or approach. We stood at the edge of the ship and I kissed Ellie's head one last time. I turned away as Killian released her body into the ocean, but her spirit was already far beyond that.

I embraced Killian, but the tragic moment was ruined by a yowl of pain. We turned and saw the crew move away from their cluster on deck as the captain became known. He was drenched in water like Killian and I, but he was bleeding profusely from one leg and using two seamen as support. In fact, there wasn't much of a leg at all. All that remained was a stub shortly below the knee.

"You, witch!" The captain declared, hobbling over to me. "Heal my leg before I cut you to pieces and feed you to the fish."

I sneered at him levitated him into the air. The crew scattered in fear, and the captain began to shout at me, "Put me down, girl! I said _put me down_. I'm Captain Ahab, you can't do this to me!"

I held him over the edge of the ship again. I had nothing to lose at this point. "I should let Moby Dick take the other leg, and whatever else he wants from you, you pathetic waste of life," I spat, but then pulled him back over to the deck where I dropped him into a crumped heap. "But I'll let you live the life of a bitter, crippled man because I can't think of a worse punishment for you than to know that that whale is alive and free while you are stuck mourning what you lost."

After all, that was exactly how I felt. I had lost everything as well; it just wasn't as physical of a reminder as a missing leg. I was going to be as bitter and terrible as I had feared. I could already feel the change happening within me. I wondered if this is why all witches were evil. No matter how much power you have, no matter the amount of magic, you can never get everything you want. It's a hard realization to know that you were chosen to have everything, and yet you still having nothing.

I pointed at the wretched captain. "Take me to the Dark One," I demanded. "I'm not afraid anymore."

**AN: Just a quick sad story, because that's how I felt yesterday when I wrote it. Just started to watch **_**Once Upon A Time **_**on Netflix and Killian is by far the most attractive so I wanted him to be a character in this. (Obviously this is before he became a pirate.) I wanted to play with the fact that all the witches in this series are evil, and I wanted to see why. Hope you enjoyed, if you managed to power through this little novella. Also, I've never read **_**Moby Dick **_**so if I got some things wrong, than feel free to correct me. I just though Captain Ahab and a white whale would fit fairly well into the **_**Once Upon A Time **_**universe. Thanks again for reading!**


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